Child Maintenance

Promoting children’s rights to fair financial support.

In 2016 and 2023, our research highlighted the significant challenges lone parents face with the Child Maintenance system. This research has raised awareness and paved the way for collaborative efforts with national organisations seeing the Transforming Child Maintenance project launch in 2023. Given that 1 in 4 children are living in poverty, an effective child maintenance service is critical to upholding a child’s right to fair financial support and the national mission of tackling child poverty.

The Child Maintenance project has made significant strides over the past year, thanks to the dedication of our team and the support of our partners. As we move forward, we remain committed to our goal of transforming the child maintenance system and reducing child poverty in Fife.

Together, we can make a lasting difference in the lives of children and families in our community.

  • Training - Introduction to Child Maintenance & Confident Conversations

  • Transforming Child Maintenance - One Parent Families Scotland (opfs.org.uk)

  • In 2016 we published partnership research raising awareness of the challenges of the Child Maintenance System (CMS). Click here to access this research which led to the Bairns Come First partnership campaign. Since then we have continued to work locally, and with national partners, to raise awareness of the failures of the system itself. CMS was designed to promote family based arrangements and reduce the ‘burden’ on the state to intervene. However, there is a wealth of research and evidence highlighting the failures of the existing system that in too many cases fails to meet the needs of families.

    We have launched updated research in 2023 (click here to access) which explores child maintenance in the context of a cost of living crisis, and we will publish this research (in partnership with Poverty Alliance) in the coming months! The primary drivers for the work are income maximisation, poverty and children’s rights.

We have a new Child Maintenance Support project (link to project here) where we can provide direct support to lone parent families in Fife.

For further info contact: childmaintenance@fifegingerbread.org.uk